Currently many airlines' aircraft safety and configuration management processes may be completed manually during pre-flight, through, heavy and line maintenance checks to ensure that necessary standard equipment items are present and in working condition and allow the aircraft proper certification to fly. Visibility of aircraft configuration and issues may automatically lead to fewer inspections, improved configuration management and safety, inventory reductions and reduced labor required to validate part compliance.
The current manual monitoring processes may be time-consuming and prone to human error and thus, may not identify all of the existing issues. Therefore, in order to automate the process and ensure continuous accurate and reliable monitoring of the aircraft configuration, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) interrogators may be integrated into pre-existing systems throughout the pressurized cabin of the aircraft. The RFID interrogators may sweep the aircraft and report issues through an on-board system to the flight deck, which may pass the information on to the airline maintenance operation check (AMOC) or equivalent system. In turn, the AMOC or other system may trigger actions in the supply chain and initiate necessary maintenance. This may reduce cycle time, improve on-time departures and safety and remove the manual procedures and human error out of current processes.
Therefore, an aircraft safety and configuration monitoring system and method in which aircraft safety and configuration process data are automatically monitored and reported to an airline maintenance operation check (AMOC) system or the like for security, supply chain and maintenance planning purposes are needed.